Laboratory of the future

An architectural exhibition is both a stage and a process.

What does it mean to be an "agent of change"? (...)
Over the past nine months, in hundreds of conversations, text messages, meetings and Zoom calls, the question of whether exhibitions of this scale - both in terms of carbon emissions and cost - are justified has come up repeatedly.
Last May, I referred to the exhibition several times as 'a story', a narrative unfolding in space.
Now my perception has changed.

(...) For the first time, Africa and the African diaspora have been put under the spotlight,
that fluid and heterogeneous culture of people
of African descent that encompasses
the entire globe today.

Lesley Lokko

What do we want to say?
How will what we say make a difference?
And perhaps most important of all, how will what we say interact and resonate with what "others" say, so that the exhibition is not a singular story, but different stories that reflect the marvelous and disturbing kaleidoscope of ideas, contexts, aspirations and meanings that represent each voice reacting to the issues of its time?
Culture, it is often said, is the sum total of the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. While this is true, what is missing from this statement is any trace of recognition of that "we" in question.

In architecture in particular, the dominant voice has historically been, historically speaking, a singular, exclusive voice, whose reach and force has disregarded huge swathes of humanity...

The "story" of architecture is therefore incomplete. Not wrong, but incomplete. Exhibitions matter in this particular context.